CBI: More long term support needed for SMEs

CBI: More long term support needed for SMEs




The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has labelled the lack of long term SME funding as a barrier to growth for the wider economy….

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has labelled the lack of long term SME funding as a barrier to growth for the wider economy.

Despite the encouraging increase in short-term finance, the CBI believes there is a lack of long-term growth, which is preventing SMEs from growing, and as a result, holding back growth in the wider economy.

In order to address the problem, the CBI has produced a new report, ‘Financing our Future Economy’, which calls for the next government to promote a market for privately placed debt. It  estimates that this could unlock up to £15 billion.

The CBI speaks on behalf of 190,000 businesses of all sizes and sectors which employ nearly 7 million people.

The CBI Director-General, John Cridland, said: “In the same way that the profile of alternative finance has increased, we want to see politicians getting behind a UK market for privately placed debt and backing the use of equity finance, to stimulate investment and long-term business growth,”

“If firms can’t get the trade finance they need to explore new markets, the UK has no way of meeting its ambitious exports target of £1 trillion by 2020.

“Of course we must have robust anti-money laundering regulations but the detailed application can be cumbersome and complex and is acting as a brake for businesses wanting to sell their products and services around the world.”

The report states that the majority of the £446 billion investment needed by 2020 to keep UK infrastructure up-to-date needs to come from the private sector.

“Infrastructure, like transport, energy and broadband, is the hard-wiring of our economy but we’re still not investing enough to support the UK’s growth ambitions,”  

He added: “We need to take the politics out of infrastructure with an independent infrastructure body. And we also need to look at innovative ways to attract investment from pension funds and insurers into our infrastructure.”

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